A Little Methanol to Get the Lipid Out

Comparison of extraction methods in the recovery rate of various lysophospholipid species.

Lipids circulating in plasma, particularly phospholipids and lysophospholipids, have potential applications as both biomarkers and as therapeutic targets for disease. Unfortunately, current methods for extracting and quantitatively analyzing the molecules are often laborious, time-consuming and beset with issues of reproducibility; in addition, extraction efficiency can vary widely depending on the class of lipids. In this study, the researchers developed a new method for PL and LPL extraction from human plasma and serum samples that requires only microliters of blood and involves only a single solvent (MeOH) and a single centrifugation step. By streamlining the extraction process, the MeOH method helps increase reproducibility, and yet, at the same time, it offers high recovery efficiency compared with classical methods. This simplified approach should be extremely useful in a wide range of applications beyond advancing lipid biomarkers, including lipid biochemistry and lipidomics.

An Extremely Simple Method for Extraction of Lysophospholipids and Phospholipids from Blood Samples